Zumbro - Cascade Lake -- Muskies out, Walleyes in...

[Slayer]

Zumbro and Cascade - Muskies out, Walleyes in

9/20/2008 8:45:01 AM

By John Weiss

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

ORONOCO -- Muskies are out for Lake Zumbro, but walleye will be in.

The Department of Natural Resources study of how well muskies have taken in the reservoir east of Oronoco found the fish don't really like the lake and head down the Zumbro River as soon as they can make it over the dam, said Kevin Stauffer, area DNR fisheries supervisor in Lake City.

That will mean the department will stop stocking muskies in the lake, something it started in 1994 as a way to add another sport fish to the lake. The research study found they didn't hang around. "We gave it a good run," he said.

Instead, the fish are being found in the river and some of the fish are very big. They have been found as far down the river as Millville, which is 25 miles from the dam

It's possible that the DNR could stock muskies in the river in the future, he said.

Thought it's giving up on muskies in the lake, it will begin stocking walleye there. It will start with about 12,000 fingerlings this fall and will stock them on alternating years. DNR tests have never found a walleye or sauger in the lake, though they are found in the river below the dam that created the lake.

The next step in getting more walleye fishing close to Rochester will be to put them in Cascade Lake in Rochester when the dredging ends and the city makes it into a park.

[walleyecaber]

I like the sound of stocking eye's in the lake we all no there are plenty of ski's in the river along with a few eye's.My last float trip down the zumbro i caught a few of both.

[Muskiefool]

It was a misinterpretation about possibly stocking in the river in the future, they will be stocking Muskie in the river since its where they all go anyway.

[7outof10]

that is nice to here

[Jesse Drummer]

how wide does that zumbro even get? I drove over a bridge last thursday and the sign said zumbroriver and it didn't look very big

[KTapper]

I second that it looked small. Hey jesse repond to my question about thurday!

[herm0026]

I thought that was a trout stream?!?!

[Tyler Holm]

The Zumbro River is a watershed river that dumps directly into the Miss. It's not known for trout, although it's not uncommon to get on out of there when the water is cold. I'm not really sure how deep it gets, but I'd guess it has many holes over 10' with some maybe even 15'.

Typically it's much wider than your stereotypical trout stream. There are many places where you probably couldn't cast across it.

[Reservoir Dawg]

how wide does that zumbro even get? I drove over a bridge last thursday and the sign said zumbroriver and it didn't look very big

Get this. There are actually three Zumbro Rivers. The north branch and middle branch join together at Lake Shady by Oronoco and the south or main branch is the river that flows through Rochester to be joined by the other branches at Lake Zumbro.There are many cold trout streams that dump into the Zumbro before joining the mighty Mississippi, right by Kellogg

[crazyice]

Actually the north branch meets up with the main river north of the lake zumbro dam. The middle and south branch meet up not too far upstream from lake zumbro.

[mark p]

The 2 branches that run together in Lake Shady at Oronoco are the "South Branch Middle Fork of the Zumbro River" and the "Middle Fork of the Zumbro River" so there are 4 different branches.

As others have said, the North Fork comes through Zumbrota and into the Zumbro downstream of Lake Zumbro and the South Fork comes through Rochester and joins the Middle Fork at the head of Lake Zumbro.

[Reservoir Dawg]

I stand corrected I forgot that other Zumbro river flowing through Zumbrota. You'd think they would've come up with differnt names to avoid confusion. Every other bridge you cross north of Rochester is over a Zumbro river

[delcecchi]

I noticed that there isn't any water in lake shady by oronoco and hiway 52 today. First time I recall seeing it like that.

[JBMasterAngler]

I've caught quite a few brown trout out of the zumbro (main branch)...most of them small, but one as big as 2 pounds. Most of them were upstream of zumbro falls, but have also caught some way down by zumbro bottoms. As stated before, numerous small trout streams and cold springs flow into the zumbro. So while these trout might not be full time residents, I would imagine the waters stay cool enough to support them long enough to find food. Only place I've ever been to where I've caught a brown trout, carp, mooneye, and muskie in the same day!

[ikeslayer]

I noticed that there isn't any water in lake shady by oronoco and hiway 52 today.

Yeah does anyone have any info on this???

[delcecchi]

Seemed to be some water this weekend..... At least enough to cover up the mud.